How to fight a comp plan before it ships
The time to change a comp plan is before it's final. Once it ships, you're mostly explaining it. Plans get built months before the year starts, so find out when yours gets drafted and who's drafting it.
Bring what the plan designers don't have
- Last year's attainment for your team: how many reps finished near 50%, 75%, 100% and 150%
- What reps actually earned against their OTE
- Territory changes, open territories and ramp for the coming year
- Deals that got credited in odd ways, and what that did to someone's pay
Test the plan against what leadership says it wants
Every plan pays for some behavior. If leadership wants new logos and the plan pays the same for expansion, reps will do expansion. If they want multi-year deals and nothing in the plan rewards them, they won't get many. Run the draft through Pay Check with your team's real attainment, and show where the money actually goes.
Ask for specific changes
One or two, with the numbers behind them. An accelerator that starts where reps actually get to. A cap high enough that it never touches a normal good year. Crediting rules written down before the first split deal. "The plan feels unfair" won't move anything.
Know when to stop
If you've made the case and the plan ships anyway, your job changes to explaining it well. How to explain a bad comp plan picks up from there.
